Communications giant AT&T (NYSE: T) is interested in acquiring satellite broadcaster DirecTV in a deal that would be worth some $40 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Shares in DirecTV surged on the news in pre-market opening trading.
Dish climbed $3.14, or 5.5 percent, to $60, according to The Associated Press.
AT&T recently announced plans to deploy a fiber-optic network in the Triangle and is investing in a new online video venture.
“AT&T has approached DirecTV about a possible acquisition of the satellite-TV firm,” The Journal reported Friday. The paper cited “people familiar with the situation.”
Neither company would comment.
The Journal noted that an AT&T-DirecTV combination would “create a pay television giant close in size to where Comcast Corp. will be if it completes its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable.”
AT&T and Time Warner Cable both provide cable related services in the Triangle. AT&T’s product is known as U-verse.
The Journal noted that DirecTV has some 20 million customers and U-verse has 5.7 million users.
A combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable would have nearly 30 million customers, the paper pointed out.
